^I agree with Krshna28. Neutrality, dislike, and "hating" are different things. Criticizing trivial/extraneous things which have nothing to do with her work, such as her outfit choices, would be within the realm of "hating." Expressing lack of admiration for her music, however, is simply stating one's opinion on a given subject. Since this is not a Gaga fan board, such opinions are permitted to be expressed, as are opinions in favour of Gaga's work.
With that said,
Born This Way isn't doing as well as
The Fame. It seems as though Gaga's popularity is fading. The singles, for one, aren't as strong as those from
The Fame. IMO, things started to slip with the last single of the transition album,
The Fame Monster. Although that album had some good singles, it wasn't as strong as her debut album.
All the videos from
The Fame were visually appealing or had a halfway interesting storyline, despite the themes of the songs themselves being a bit bland. The majority of
The Fame Monster's videos were still pretty top-grade, visual-wise, although one of them was kind of a bit of a rip off from her first album's idea (poisoning being a theme both in "Paparazzi" and "Telephone"). The fact that "Telephone" was supposed to be a sort of sequel to the Paparazzi video makes the repetition even more inexcusable, presenting Gaga as a sort of one trick pony who can only kill people by poisoning them, which was the opposite of the 'bad girl' image she was attempting to project. Beyonce's cameo/vocals in the song were also pretty out of place, and I am of the opinion that the song would have been much better without her. The last single, "Alejandro", was much better in song than in video format, which is the complete converse of most of Gaga's material--her videos tend to be more interesting than her songs. The video was plainly atrocious, had nothing at all to do with the song, and just seemed to be an excuse to offend some people's religious sensitivities. The entire affair seemed gimmicky and had a stench of pseudo-rebellion, as it almost seemed like she was attempting to be a Marilyn Manson 2.0, without the passion for or talent at pushing people's buttons.
From what I've noticed, things have started to go downhill for Gaga since "Alejandro." Everyone was expecting this hugely awesome song when she sang a bit of "Born This Way" at the MTV music awards, but in the end, the first single turned out to be just a common pop song with some suspect resemblance to Madonna's "Express Yourself," which even Gaga fans had to admit existed. The video for that single was notably tacky and pointless, with Gaga's pseudo-metaphoric babble at the beginning doing the already horrid thing no favours.
The album's second single, "Judas", became easily forgettable as well (despite my penchant for it). Despite her attempt to create controversy by releasing the single so close to Easter, (which she later denied, to nobody's surprise, in an effort to create even more controversy through feigned ignorance), the single failed to reach a top position on any relevant charts. The music video also leaves much to be desired, and the theme of the song is like a watered-down version of her previous (and much better) hit, "Bad Romance."
Note to Gaga: the "piss off as many religious people as you can" horse has been beaten to death by Madonna, and countless metal bands throughout the world, not to mention Marilyn Manson, whose attempts are far more sophisticated than anything we've witnessed from you thus far.
The latest single/music video, "Edge of Glory," is entirely lackluster and repetitive, and even cheesier than her first 2011 single, "Born This Way." The best part out of the whole song is that saxophone solo, which was performed by Clarence Clemons (RIP). The fact that the most memorable part of her song is a performance by someone else doesn't speak well about the rest of it. The single's video is also pretty boring, especially when compared to her prior work. The strongest thing she's got going for her is visual appeal, and she totally botched it with that video. It was reminiscent of "Love Game" with the urban setting, but lacked what made that video interesting. The lyrics are also horrendously cheesy, albeit great material for a drinking game--take a sip every time she says "edge." You'll be drunk in no time, which might make the song more tolerable/less annoying and cheesy, maybe.
Most of the other songs from her album are nothing special, especially when compared to her previous work. I'm generally not in favour of comparing musicians to one another unless the plagiarism is self-evident, which is why my review has, for the most part, compared Gaga's efforts to her previous work. Some of the remaining songs beat the aforementioned "piss off the religious" horse to death even more, especially "Bloody Mary," which one would think featured the infamous English queen, but actually very obviously is meant to be a reference to Mary Magdalene, a controversial figure of Biblical stock (thanks to Pope Gregory the Great deeming her a repentant prostitute), whom some believe may have been in a physical relationship with Jesus--but all that's
Da Vinci Code drivel, so I won't discuss it. "Black Jesus" also fits in with the whole "piss off religious people" theme, despite the song being about her love of fashion, I could see how some would consider it blasphemy, with the random dropping of the name in a song that has nothing to do with Jesus. "Electric Chapel" would fit in here too, since the song is about meeting someone at a dance club to "make this pure love work in dirty ways," which is diametrically opposed to the idea of what a Chapel's purpose is.
"Hair" is a whiny, mediocre song which places Gaga as a whiny teenager, hence her protests against her mom and dad who "won't let her be who she really is," whatever that means. The entire thing is just some shallow anthem to her love of fashion and, apparently, hair, which would be fine if only she didn't say "I'm not a freak." I don't see how anyone who isn't shallow would deem her thus--looking past her outfits and gimmicks, getting into the soul of her work, she's just like all the others, which is why she's incessantly popular. This is further confirmed by lyrics in the same song, which express her wanting to have "lots of friends who invite her to parties," and giving herself red highlights so her friends will think she's "dynamite," along with some mention of a High School dance. In other words, she's trying to play to the whole "I'm different because I dress weird" image, but at the same time she gives herself away as just an ordinary girl who wants attention. "Bad Kids" belongs in this category as well. Think of it as a less catchy version of P!nk's "Raise Your Glass." All shallow high school/teen drama drivel here, nothing to see at all.
"Government Hooker" is a less sexy version of "Love Game," which also had the sex/authority/submission theme in the video. John F. Kennedy also gets a sorry mention, which I'm sure would have the poor bloke rolling in his grave, but anyway. "Scheiße" should have never been penned down, as she completely butchers the German language. Note to Gaga: stick to French. "Fashion" is a much better song in every regard.
"Heavy Metal Lover" is a song about group sex, with some weak S&M innuendo which barely manages to stay above Rihanna's truly awful "S&M" song. "You and I" is just a regular love song. "Marry the Night" is a song about how she makes herself feel better by drinking and going out into NYC's nightlife. Truly, none of these are anything special.
"Americano" might be the only really relevant/meaningful/halfway redeeming song out of the entire
Born This Way album. It certainly is the only one which paints her in a sympathetic light, as someone who fell in love with a Latin American girl in LA, and the entire story of the song is about how they can run away to be together and marry on the West Coast, as their love is "on the edge of the law" everywhere else. Despite the fact that neither speaks the others' language, and Gaga doesn't speak her "Jesus Cristo" (I interpret this as the girl having some reservations about being with Gaga due to her Catholic beliefs--as Latin American Catholics tend to frown upon gay marriage and are overall more religious/dogmatic than American ones, if you can imagine that...), Gaga feels she loves her, etc. and her heart aches for how much she cares for the girl, as she sings of how "they fell in love, but not in court," meaning their love is not recognized by the state like heterosexual marriages. She then alludes to a better place with the following verse: "In the mountains, las campanas, estan sonando. Todos los chicos, y los chicos, se estan besando " can be interpreted as wedding bells ringing in California (known to have mountainous terrain), and the guys kissing are obviously gay men who just got married. She sings of her songs being "of the revolution", which, really, with the exception of this one, they are not. She's no t.A.T.u., however, at least this is a step in the right direction. Arguably, both "Born This Way" and "Highway Unicorn" would fit here too, but god they're both just dreadful.
Overall,
Born this Way has pretty much none of the "political" air she spoke of during her discussions of it prior to her release. It was mostly self-indulgent drivel and a major let-down to anyone who was expecting anything of meaning--well, they got
one good song out of it, at least. I think it would have done much better had she not hyped it up so much during her interviews, etc. and had she not striven to cause so much controversy by continually misusing symbols of the Christian religion while claiming to follow it. That approach would work much better if she didn't claim to be a Christian, as her use of said symbols could be seen as a protest to the beliefs in said religion, instead of a gimmick for attention and ignorance of Christian teachings on her part.
Then again, I'm of the opinion that religion and non-religious music genres shouldn't mix, as everyone should be able to enjoy music without either being indoctrinated with values of x religion, having their religion attacked by the musician, or in this case, having their religious symbols be exploited by the musician in an effort to appear "edgy." But then we get into the whole "freedom of expression" thing, and end up arguing ad nauseam.
Anyway, my two cents and honest review on Gaga's latest album.
